


something new

by CiaranthePage



Series: The Lodge in the Woods [2]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Aubrey's POV, Crush at First Sight, Dani's pov, F/F, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2020-11-24 19:44:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20913101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CiaranthePage/pseuds/CiaranthePage
Summary: Amnesty Lodge doesn't get shaken up much, but today is something different.(Aubrey gets a new home; Dani meets someone new.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello it's me back with another entry into this series : 3  
i decided to move this one to its own entry for clarity and bcus halfway through formatting this to post i realized what i wanted to do for the second chapter and figured this would be a better format for it; it relies a little on the context of the previous entry in this series, but you should be able to read it no problem either way!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mama leaves you in the lobby of the lodge, and you're not sure what to do. She told you to get a tour from the cute girl who went to get a room ready for you, but you're nervous around cute girls enough as is, and right now you're sitting with a burnt hand and a bunny almost too big to lift with the arm you have left. Not to mention you don't even know exactly where you are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello welcome to this chp from aubrey's pov!!! aubrey's starting to settle in!! so get ready for a lot of descriptions of dani and some lore details!! i hope you enjoy ^u^  
and as always, if you're new to this au or have any questions, check out the document on the series page or drop your questions in the comments!!

Mama leaves you in the lobby of the lodge, and you're not sure what to do. She told you to get a tour from the cute girl who went to get a room ready for you, but you're nervous around cute girls enough as is, and right now you're sitting with a burnt hand and a bunny almost too big to lift with the arm you have left. Not to mention you don't even know exactly where you are.

Nowhere near your hotel room, that's for sure.

The lodge is quiet, and the few people in the rest of the lobby pay no attention to you. Apparently this happens enough that Mama pulling someone new in and tending to their wounds isn't worth a reaction. You start to stand up, but Dr. Harris Bonkers settles further into your lap instead of jumping down like usual and you don't bother finishing the motion. He sniffs the vest pocket where you usually keep treats for shows.

"I don't think I have any left," you mumble. His fur is soft on your uninjured hand. He doesn't respond.

"What's his name?"

You look up and there she is. Dani, Mama said her name is, leaning on the back of the chair next to you. Her hair is long and golden, falling around her shoulders like something out of a fairytale, and her eyes are the kind of orange you'd expect out of a gemstone. She's smiling at you. There are golden freckles across her nose that sparkle like stars when her cheeks move. You lose your breath for a moment.

"Dr. Harris Bonkers," you say, barely.

"He's cute!"

Dani pulls herself over the chair, sitting next to you. She reaches out, pausing. You nod. She pets the top of his head with a special kind of care, grinning. Her teeth are pointed, just slightly. Her ears are pointed, too, but the tips droop a little. Your face is warmer than it should be. She doesn’t seem to notice. For once, you have no words. The lodge is quiet.

“There’s a room for you, if you want to get settled,” Dani finally says, looking up at you. “I don’t know what he’ll need, but… you look like you need some sleep.”

Your burnt hand itches. She’s right, but you can’t see yourself sleeping anytime soon. "I think I'll wait for Mama to get back."

There's a look on Dani's face you can't read, but it feels familiar. Her hand brushes yours as she moves it to stroke Dr. Harris Bonkers and you resist the urge to take it. She doesn’t say much, waiting. She smells like dirt and plants and maybe paint, though you don’t recognize the smell so much as connect the dots to the flecks of paint on her hands and on the front of her overalls. Overalls that she’s wearing over a sweater, which is both adorable and leaves you wondering if she’s hot in the outfit. It’s still summertime in this strange world you’ve ended up in, if the heat outside is anything to go by. Is she cold? You’re staring, and you know you’re staring, but she doesn’t look up at you, and somehow that almost makes it worse.

"What brings you here, Aubrey?" Dani looks up, leaning on one hand. "Are you staying long?"

"My, uh, my hand blew up when I did magic," you explain, holding up your burnt hand. "And then Mama pulled me through a portal because she said otherwise I was going to die?"

"Oh, you're from the mirror world!" Dani's eyes widen in excitement and she gasps a little. "You seem so… comfortable with magic, I didn't realize."

“The… mirror… world?”

The wonder in Dani’s expression loses its shape and you feel a twinge of sadness. “The mirror world,” she repeats. “The one on the other side of…” She stops, starts twirling some of her hair around her finger and you pretend it’s not as distracting as it is. She murmurs something about Mama and says, “The world ‘next’ to ours,” she mimes air quotes, the way people do when they’re talking about sci-fi concepts that don’t make much sense, “where there’s no magic. Or at least, there shouldn’t be magic.”

There’s a silence, and your burnt hand starts to itch. You rub it against the arm of the chair to soothe the sensation. It doesn’t do much, but it makes you feel better.

“Are… are you staying long?” Dani repeats. She doesn’t meet your eyes, braiding part of her hair.

“What?”

“...Mama didn’t tell you?”

“Didn’t tell me… what?”

Dani steals a look around the room and then back at you, leaning in close, her hair catching the sun at a new angle and almost distracting you from the way she whispers, “C’mon, I’ll show you to your room.”

Your heart starts racing.

Dr. Harris Bonkers gets up this time, hopping dutifully at your heels down the hall as Dani leads you to your room. She talks while you walk, but your hand starts to hurt a little, almost as if it’s burning all over again, and you don’t catch it. And then there’s a hand on your shoulder, and Dani opens the door for you, and beyond that door is the nicest room you’ve ever seen.

Not nice in the sense of fancy, no, you’ve stayed in upscale hotels before with fancier rooms. Nice in the sense that you’ve never seen it before but the room seems to open its arms to you and welcome you home, and there’s a handmade quilt on a huge bed and sunlight coming in from a big window and a vanity that is probably hand-carved, polished with a special kind of care. It's the warm of a snowstorm hot chocolate in the form of a space. You'd been expecting a hotel room, you realize; this is anything but.

Dr. Harris Bonkers hops onto the bed, makes himself comfortable. Dani pauses in the doorway, waits for you to go inside, taps her fingers on the doorframe. You sit on the bed next to Dr. Harris Bonkers, every muscle tense. Dani steals a glance down the hall and sits at the vanity, twisting and braiding her hair again. You open your mouth to say a few things, a few times, but nothing comes out.

“It’s not bad,” she begins with, and you immediately suspect that it’s very, very bad. “There’s this… thing we can do, for people like you, people from the mirror world.”

“Does Mama rescue lots of people like me?”

“No, not as much as... people like me.” Dani’s pause is strange, but she pushes forward before you can ask. “But sometimes. And sometimes those people want to go back. But they can’t, because of the magic, so Mama. Well not Mama, I think she has a friend that can basically take the magic away? Except it also erases all of your memories of magic. And then you can go home, like nothing ever happened, with no memory to prove you wrong.”

You feel like you should jump at the chance. You have shows you’d planned, and you’d lived there your whole life, if only because you never knew there was anywhere else to be. But you don’t. Because here you feel like you can finally breathe, and not just because there are no magic embers clogging your esophagus. Because here, you realize, nothing you’ve ever done has gone wrong. Because there’s nobody waiting for you at home. That thought leaves a nasty taste in your mouth.

“Oh,” is all you say, and Dani picks up on something in your expression because she smiles at you with as much warmth as the room around you and reassures you.

“It’s not scary,” she says, and she sets her hair down but doesn’t stand. “If you want to go home, I mean. And if it is you. Won’t remember it.”

You pet Dr. Harris Bonkers and chew on the idea. “But what happens if I don’t do that?” you decide to ask, because you think it might be the right answer for you, and the answer Dani is hoping for, and maybe even the answer Mama would want, too.

“Then you’d move in, probably,” Dani says, relaxing into the seat. “Or move to another town, or wander, or whatever you want. But most of the people who stay end up moving in here.”

You think of the sparse crowd in the lobby. That's probably not a lot of people. Or, as you realize a few moments later, they could be out and about, since it’s midday, as opposed to the early evening you left behind in the… mirror world, Dani called it.

“Where is this, anyway?” you ask, finally letting go of all of the tension in your muscles, much to said muscles’ relief.

Dani doesn’t answer right away. She thinks for a few moments and then moves to lie down next to you, catching a sunbeam slipping through the window. Her hair lights up and there is so much, enough that she has to gather it and fan it out behind her as she lies down, stretching almost all the way across the bed. The sunbeam catches her orange eyes and glimmers off of her golden freckled as she adjusts, and you hope she doesn’t notice you staring, just a little. “The building’s called Amnesty Lodge,” she decides. “We’re at the edge of a big forest people call the Gateway Woods.”

Amnesty. A weird name for a lodge. “I didn’t see the forest,” you remark, and you lie down beside Dani, Dr. Harris Bonkers hopping onto your chest.

Dani looks over at you. “Really?”

You shrug, smiling. “I was busy.”

Dani laughs, and she snorts when she laughs and you feel more and more like you’re not going to go back through that portal. “C’mon,” she says, though she makes no move to stand, “I should give you that tour before Mama gets home.”

Home. It sounds so natural coming out of her mouth, and you grin. “Probably,” you say.

She stands first, and instead of offering her hand she scoops up Dr. Harris Bonkers with a kind of ease that you haven’t seen in anyone else, setting him down after giving him a kiss on the forehead. “Figured he’d want to come too,” she says, and she finally pulls you to your feet. “Now, onto that tour.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You realize as you pull her up that Aubrey’s free hand is more callused than you thought it would be, and the way it glides against your hand sends a shiver up your spine. And you have calluses, too, but they’re different, they’re from garden tools and paintbrushes and scooping dirt with bare hands. Hers are from magic, from lugging things around, handling machines and set pieces and rabbit cages.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's dani's turn to be the point of view yay!!!  
this is very gay and dani is crushing hard on day one bcus it's my au and i get to choose the pining time period  
nonetheless, hope you enjoy!

You realize as you pull her up that Aubrey’s free hand is more callused than you thought it would be, and the way it glides against your hand sends a shiver up your spine. And you have calluses, too, but they’re different, they’re from garden tools and paintbrushes and scooping dirt with bare hands. Hers are from magic, from lugging things around, handling machines and set pieces and rabbit cages. They tell a story, and you almost wish she could read yours just as vividly.

Aubrey laughs when you pull to her feet, and she seems to glow in the afternoon sun when she does, the light weaving through the colors in her hair as if to set it ablaze. You don’t know much about fire, but you do remember seeing the pyromancer show you all its different colors, and you wonder if that was on purpose. Your hands linger together longer than you originally planned as you feel yourself smile and feel the warmth in her hand spread to yours. She doesn’t let go. You don’t let go. You take a half-step toward the door and she follows without letting go.

Okay. Okay, that’s fine, you feel your heart quicken but to her it probably feels like a normal human heartbeat instead of your usual cold, sluggish one and you try not to think about it. Or the way her eyes shift as you start out the door, warm brown and watching carefully as you move. Or how her vest is fraying around the edges of the sleeves in a way that highlights the muscles in her arms. Or --

You shake your head a little. “Down this hallway is just more rooms, so let’s head out to the lobby,” you say. “But, um, my room is a few doors down, in case you wanted to know. There’s a sign on the door. And Mama’s is at the end of the hall.”

Aubrey keeps looking at you, and you see her eyes dart behind her for a moment but she just refocuses, like she’s actively trying to pay attention to you. You’re not used to such direct attention, but it feels… nice. Warm. You don’t know how much of that is her hand in yours. You don’t care.

Dr. Harris Bonkers follows at your feet (Aubrey’s feet) as you lead Aubrey into the lobby and introduce her to a few of the people still there, show her where the winter blankets are and where Mama hides the extra blankets and where the firewood is and which chairs lean back and which don’t and the best places to watch the sunset with tea and ice cream. You swear your voice is shaking, just a little, but if it is she doesn’t notice, just laughs at your jokes and cracks her own and stays close, so close. She smiles at you, and you can’t see if she’s blushing but you kind of hope she is because you _know _you would be if you could blush.

“And that way’s the kitchen, but we don’t really go in there,” you say, gesturing toward the little hallway to the kitchen. “Barclay makes most of the food by himself.”

Aubrey’s nose wrinkles a little, still with a smile. “Does he use magic?”

You’re pretty sure the answer is yes, but all you say is, “Probably,” because when Aubrey says magic you swear you see her light up in a very literal way and don’t know how to bring it up or if you even should.

"Cool," is all Aubrey says, and you're pretty sure she didn't see herself glow. "When's dinner? I'm kind of hungry."

"Later," you reply. You know Barclay said something more specific earlier but you don't remember while watching how Aubrey's shoulders are relaxing and she looks more at home.

You point out the door to the garden and almost lead Aubrey out to see your lovingly tended to project when you hear a voice say, "Done with that tour yet, girls? 'Cause Imma need a hand."

Mama is standing in the doorway, smiling at you. She has a suitcase in hand and two more behind her, and Aubrey lights up (not literally, this time) when she spots them all. “Oh, my stuff!” she says, and you watch a second behind as she walks over to Mama.

“Wait, Aubrey,” Mama is cautioning when you make your way over, and you see Aubrey flinch as she heeds the warning just a moment too late and grabs at one of the bags with her burnt hand.

“Fuck,” Aubrey hisses, pulling her hand back. She looks at it, her eyebrows wrinkled, and she pushes up her glasses as she stares at her hand. You wonder what she’s thinking, but she doesn’t express it out loud.

“Dani, why don't you grab this last one?” Mama directs you, nodding to the suitcase behind her.

She starts walking before you say anything, which is good because instead of grabbing the suitcase immediately you go over to Aubrey. “You okay?” you ask, and you take her hands without thinking, without warming them in the afternoon sun, without the conscious moment to make yourself feel human.

You realize just after you touch her that your hands are freezing. She doesn’t pull away. She intertwines your fingers as carefully as she can, your cold against her burn. “I’ll be fine,” she assures you, and you can’t help but smile back.

Before Aubrey can try again, you grab the last suitcase in your free hand. You see a little tag on the side while you roll it along, still hand-in-hand with Aubrey, to her new room, that says “Dr. Harris Bonkers” in looping handwriting. So you got the rabbit suitcase. That’s fine; Dr. Harris Bonkers hopping at Aubrey’s heels is adorable. And so it Aubrey’s handwriting, if she was the one who wrote the little tag.

Mama is already in the room when you get there, Aubrey’s suitcases on the bed. “I can make you a new hutch, Aubrey, but it’ll take a few days,” she says, retying her bandana. “Think you’ll need one?”

Dr. Harris Bonkers hops up to Mama’s feet and sits down, and you see her melt a little. Aubrey laughs, and it's like a choir singing. "I'll let you know."

“Then I’ll let you get unpacked before dinner.” Mama gives Aubrey a side hug, and you a full hug. “Don’t hurt yourself again, promise?”

“Promise,” Aubrey says, and she watches Mama leave before she looks at you again. You wait, and she finally coughs and says, quieter than before, “Can you show me the garden?”

You swear your grin almost splits your face open. “Of course,” is most of what you say, because the rest is lost in taking her hand and starting out the door to go outside into the warmth of the afternoon sun and the smell of fresh plants for a while, even if you’re starting to wonder if it’s holding your hand in human form.

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to the endnote! i hope you enjoyed this entry into the au!!  
if you'd like to see more of my work or come chat with me, you can catch me on tumblr at [thegempage](https://thegempage.tumblr.com/) or on twitter [@achillopal](https://twitter.com/achillopal)  
i hope you have a good day/afternoon/evening/night!!!


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